Geshe Ngawang Wangyal (1901 – 1983) led an incredible life. His story is all the more inspiring not because he had a comfortable life or an impressive title, but because he persevered in his spiritual journey despite the challenges he faced.

Born in Russia, Geshe Wangyal received his monastic education in both Russia and Tibet. He worked as a guide, translator and, at one time, even worked for the CIA’s Tibet Task Force.

Geshe Wangyal persevered to become the first lama to play a pivotal role in introducing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. He was also the one who brought His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the United States.

Early Life

Geshe Wangyal, a Kalmyk (Mongolian), was born Lidjiin Keerab on October 15, 1901 in the Astrakhan Province of south-eastern Russia, to Leiji and his wife Bolgan. His father, Leiji, passed away when he was less than one year old. His mother took him to a temple, where she had the following conversation with her son:

Mother: Buddha is a special being to whom we bow and pray. He will bless you when you bow down and pray, you must do so for the sake of all living beings.

Geshe Wangyal: If I pray for others, how will I get what I want?

Mother: By helping others your own aims will be achieved incidentally.

Source: Geshe Ngawang Wangyal, The Door of Liberation: Essential Teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition, p. xiv

Geshe Wangyal was the youngest of four siblings. Gunsang, one of his brothers who was eight years older than him, was a monk. His family often praised Gunsang for his choice, and this inspired the young boy to be ordained too. At the age of six, he entered a local monastery where his elder brother, Gunsang was a resident monk. From then on, Gunsang became responsible for his brother’s education. Gunsang was a good teacher. The young Geshe Wangyal was immediately assigned to learn the Tibetan language and memorise many Tibetan texts, and he excelled in whatever learning tasks that were assigned to him.

When he was 16 years old, Geshe Wangyal entered a medical school. His teacher was very proud of him due to his intelligence and thirst for knowledge; Geshe Wangyal was able to study a two-year curriculum within one year. However, the young teenager lost interest in medical studies after his teacher passed away at the end of the year.

Lama Agvan Dorjiev was Geshe Wangyal’s teacher

Around this time, he met his root teacher, Lama Agvan Dorjiev, a famed diplomat and a debate partner of His Holiness the 13^th Dalai Lama. Although Lama Dorjiev was very much involved with the political situation at the time, he remained committed to promoting the Tibetan Buddhist studies of the Yellow Hat (Gelug) tradition in Kalmykia, Buryatia, and Mongolia. Geshe Wangyal entered a monastic college that Lama Agvan Dorjiev had established in Kalmykia, and also received his main initiations and vows from Lama Agvan Dorjiev.

One summer, the teenage Geshe Wangyal contracted typhoid. His condition was so dire that his fellow monks lost all hope for his recovery. His mother came to the monastery to take care of him. She sucked the phlegm and pus out of his lungs and throat to prevent him from suffocating. When Geshe Wangyal regained consciousness, he found out that his mother had contracted typhoid through her efforts to save him and passed away on the same day that he recovered.

Geshe Wangyal was devastated by his mother’s death and tremendous sacrifice. At the same time, he was overwhelmed by a sense of thirst after his fever. He was appalled by this sense of selfishness and became determined to dedicate his life to liberate himself and others from such self-centred impulses. Throughout his life, Geshe Wangyal always spoke lovingly of his mother and said that he had never encountered such unconditional compassion in his life.

Lhasa in the 1920s

Lama Agvan Dorjiev recognised Geshe Wangyal’s intelligence and passion for Buddhist studies. He predicted that Geshe Wangyal would be able to complete a Geshe (Doctorate in Buddhism) curriculum at the Gelugpa monastic universities in Tibet, and helped him to travel there. Geshe Wangyal received the opportunity to travel to Tibet when Sergey Borisov, an official of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was given a secret assignment. The USSR’s foreign ministry had tasked him with going to Tibet to look for opportunities to proselytise communism. Their travel group posed as religious pilgrims and included genuine Buddhist pilgrims to bolster the façade. Borisov even presented himself as a Buryat Mongol lama during the months-long trek to Lhasa.

Lama Dorjiev arranged for the 21-year-old Geshe Wangyal to be included in Borisov’s group. He was aware of Borisov’s intentions and mission, so he advised the young Geshe Wangyal to separate himself from the group before entering the holy city of Lhasa to avoid being identified as a member of Borisov’s party. Like many geshe aspirants before him, Geshe Wangyal left with the full intention of returning to his hometown one day and spreading the Buddhadharma among his fellow Kalmyks.

The Scholar Who Earned His Living

In Lhasa, Geshe Wangyal continued his studies at Drepung Gomang Monastery. Between 1934 and 1935, driven by the need for financial resources, Geshe Wangyal decided to return to Kalmykia to raise the necessary funds to complete his studies. He returned home only to discover that the ruling communist government was persecuting the religious clergy, so Geshe Wangyal decided to return to Asia.

Sir Charles Alfred Bell

Geshe Wangyal found a way to earn a living through his friend and confidant, the British statesman and explorer Sir Charles Alfred Bell. Through Bell’s recommendation, Geshe Wangyal served as a guide, interpreter, and assistant during Bell’s Manchurian and Mongolian tour. Once his assignment with Bell was complete, Geshe Wangyal went to China where he compared the different editions of the Kangyur, the spoken words of the Buddha, and the Tangyur, the treatises of the Indian Buddhist commentators, for a publishing house. During this time, Geshe Wangyal taught himself the English language. He also travelled to Vietnam to work for a French diplomat.

His travels allowed him to save up enough funds to return to Tibet and re-enter Drepung Gomang Monastery. Once he obtained his Geshe degree, Geshe Wangyal divided his time between Kalimpong and China in the winter and Lhasa for the rest of the year. He also briefly visited England at the invitation of Marco Palis, a Greek-British author and mountaineer. This idyllic existence, however, was about to be cut short.

Drepung Monastery in Tibet

Escape to India

By the end of 1951, the Chinese Communist forces had expanded their presence from the eastern provinces to Central Tibet. Geshe Wangyal could not remain in Lhasa because he was known to be a Russian national. His status as a lama and a trader also put him at risk during a time when Communist forces sought to purify society of its bourgeois elements. Geshe Wangyal escaped to Kalimpong, India, where he came across a New York Times article about a group of Kalmyks who had established a community in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, USA. The article inspired him to move to the United States. Freewood Acres later became known as Howell.

Kalimpong in India

The Background of Kalmyk Immigration to the United States

After World War II, during Joseph Stalin’s rule, many of the Kalmyks who opposed Communism sought refuge in the United States. In 1948, the United States government issued the Displaced Person (DP) Act, a humanitarian immigration program that authorised 200,000 displaced Europeans’ admission to the United States for permanent residence.

Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya and her famous father, Leo Tolstoy

At first, there were some doubts as to whether the Kalmyks could be classified as Europeans. Fortunately, the Kalmyks received assistance from Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, the youngest daughter of the famous Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, and her Tolstoy Foundation.

Countess Alexandra shared her father’s belief in non-violence. She was briefly imprisoned following the Bolshevik Revolution but was later released and installed as the director of the Tolstoy Museum. In 1929, Countess Alexandra emigrated to the United States. Ten years later, she established the Tolstoy Foundation. The original objective of the foundation was to assist refugees from the USSR and Europe, but it grew to include a larger charitable scope.

The Tolstoy Foundation

Through the Tolstoy Foundation, Countess Alexandra testified in front of the immigration tribunal that Kalmyks are Europeans. She argued that the Kalmyks had stayed in European Russia for many centuries and this fact far outweighed their Asian origins.

The tribunal initially rejected the idea that Kalmyks are Europeans but the decision was reversed a few months later by the United States Attorney General and the Board of Immigration Appeals. With their status as Europeans confirmed, the Kalmyks became eligible to enter the United States under the DP Act of 1948. Less than a year after their arrival in the Unites States, the Kalmyks established their first Tibetan Buddhist temple, Rashi Gempil Ling, which is also the first Kalmyk Tibetan Buddhist temple in the United States.

Rashi Gempil Ling, the first Kalmyk Tibetan Buddhist temple in the United States. This temple was 10 minutes walk from Tsem Rinpoche’s family home in Howell, New Jersey. Tsem Rinpoche as a youth would often come to this temple to receive teachings, initiations and attend Buddhist services.

VIDEO: Mongol History – Kalmyks in the USA, 1960s

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/MongolHistoryKalmykintheUSA1960s.mp4

Early Days in the United States

Geshe Ngawang Wangyal, aboard La Liberté, arrives in America, February 3, 1955. John Lent/Associated Press

Thanks to the intervention of the Tolstoy Foundation, Geshe Wangyal’s application for a visa was finally granted by the American Consulate in New Delhi, India, in 1954. He boarded the La Liberté in France and arrived at the port of New York in January 1955 to become the first Kalmyk Mongolian lama in the United States.

Upon his arrival, Geshe Wangyal attempted to join both Rashi Gempil Ling and the newer Tibetan Buddhist centre, Tashi Lhunpo. Membership in either temple meant that Geshe Wangyal would not have to engage in fundraising activities to purchase the property needed to accommodate the Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Language program that he hoped to start. Geshe Wangyal aspired to establish a program similar to what his teacher, Lama Dorjiev, had created many years before in Kalmykia. Unfortunately, his requests to join Rashi Gempil Ling and Tashi Lhunpo were rejected due to the intervention of Dilowa Khutuktu (Telo Tulku Rinpoche), a Mongolian Tulku who came to the United States in 1949.

The Monk Who Worked for the CIA

Geshe Wangyal at Columbia University

Despite the rejection, an opportunity to raise the necessary funds to establish his education program fortuitously presented itself. From 1956 to the 1970s, Geshe Wangyal taught the Tibetan language at Columbia University.

Takster Rinpoche

Around the same time that he started teaching at Columbia University, the eldest brother of His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama, Thubten Jigme Norbu (Takster Rinpoche), helped Geshe Wangyal to secure a position on the CIA’s Tibet Task Force. Geshe Wangyal was assigned to develop the telecode used to communicate with the Tibetan Resistance movement.

Eight months before Geshe Wangyal’s arrival, the CIA sponsored Takster Rinpoche’s visit to the United States. Takster Rinpoche had previously visited the United States in 1951 to present an eyewitness account of the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet to the American foreign policies and intelligence communities. On the second of such visits, Geshe Wangyal served as Takster Rinpoche’s interpreter during his meeting with the CIA.

According to Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison in their book The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet:

“Having dissected Tibetan grammar during years of poring over Buddhist texts, he had a particularly deep appreciation for its written form. His extended time as Bell’s interpreter had left him with reasonably good English skills. The U.S. government, for one, found his linguistic talents more than adequate: among his first Tibetan students at Columbia were two from the U.S. Army.”

Source: Conboy, Kenneth and Morrison, James, The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet, p. 51

The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet (click to download PDF)

Geshe Wangyal’s involvement with the CIA gave them the opportunity to play a significant role during the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet to India.

The guerrilla fighters assigned to ensure the Dalai Lama’s safety during this escape journey used the telecode developed by Geshe Wangyal to keep the CIA informed of their movements and to request Prime Minister Nehru to grant political asylum in India for the Dalai Lama, his family, and entourage.

After the Dalai Lama arrived in India, Geshe Wangyal focused on the next task, which was to bring the Dalai Lama to the United States.

The Dalai Lama when he entered India in 1959

Spreading the Dharma in the United States

Geshe Wangyal’s work with the CIA enabled him to secure a property and build a ranch-style home in Freewood Acres in 1958. The property would go on to become the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America (LBMA), the first centre of Tibetan Buddhist academic studies in the United States.

Geshe Ngawang Wangyal and a boyhood friend from Kalmykia, Dorji Purview, in the new altar room of the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America, 1964. Courtesy of David Urubshurow.

The year 1960 held several milestones for Geshe Wangyal. He resigned from the CIA task force which continued without him for over ten years. He was also granted American citizenship and an American passport. That summer, Geshe Wangyal travelled to India for an audience with the Dalai Lama, who decided to send four Tibetan Buddhist lamas to Geshe Wangyal’s Freewood Acres centre to learn English and later teach Buddhism to receptive audiences. The four lamas were:

• Geshe Lhundup Sopa, who later became a professor of Buddhism at the University of Wisconsin;
• Lama Kunga Thartse Rinpoche, the founder of the Ewam Choden Buddhist centre in California; and
• Sharpa Rinpoche and Kamlung Rinpoche, two teenage tulkus.

LBMA continued to sponsor many Tibetan lamas from the Tibetan settlements in India and provided them with English language lessons so that they could serve the Buddhist community in the United States. Geshe Wangyal also took on resident American students who gave English language lessons to the monks in exchange for classes in the Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhism.

Many of the teachers under this alumni program would go on to establish their own centres and attract many followers. One example is Geshe Lobsang Tharchin who arrived in the United States after the program began and became the longest-serving abbot at Rashi Gempil Ling. Through his sponsorship of Tibetan monks, Geshe Wangyal played a significant role in spreading Tibetan Buddhism in the United States.

Geshe Wangyal was also involved in the translation of two volumes of popular Tibetan and Sanskrit stories: The Prince who became a Cuckoo and The Door of Liberation. Geshe Wangyal also translated Illuminations: A Guide to Essential Buddhist Practices with Brian Cutillo, a scholar and translator in the field of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Expansion Continued

Not long after the arrival of the first batch of lamas from India, LBMA received its first group of Harvard students: including Jeffrey Hopkins, Christopher George and others. Geshe Wangyal taught them Buddhism and, in return, his students from Harvard provided English language lessons to the newly-arrived monks and helped out at the centre. Jeffrey Hopkins would go on to receive his doctorate degree and teach Buddhism at the University of Virginia. He also wrote many books on Tibetan Buddhism.

Geshe Wangyal with his students from Harvard, including Jeffrey Hopkins and Christopher George

In the 1960s, more Americans came to study with Geshe Wangyal and the Tibetan monks. To accommodate the situation and his wish to retire, Geshe Wangyal bought land in Washington, New Jersey, and left his Howell monastery in the care of the resident Tibetan monks. The retreat house was completed in 1968 and, in 1975, Geshe Wangyal and his students built the Schoolhouse.

In 1979, Geshe Wangyal sold the Howell monastery and moved the Tibetan monks to a newly-purchased property in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Aside from fundraising, building, and teaching his students, Geshe Wangyal was also closely involved in the planning of the Labsum Shedrup Ling or Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center’s physical facilities, which was his centre in Washington, New Jersey.

The Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center (TBLC) also known as Labsum Shedrup Ling in Washington, New Jersey

Inviting the Dalai Lama to the United States

In 1964, Geshe Wangyal took one of his American students to India and introduced him to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. This student was the first Westerner ordained by the Dalai Lama, and he served briefly as a Tibetan Buddhist monk.

Two undergraduate students from Harvard, Joel McCleary and Joshua Cutler, who took an introductory course on Tibetan Buddhism expressed their interest in continuing with their Buddhist studies, so were introduced to Geshe Wangyal in the summer of 1971. McCleary recalled that Geshe Wangyal’s first assignment to him was “Bring the Dalai Lama to America.”

Geshe Wangyal and the Dalai Lama in 1979

By this time, Geshe Wangyal had successfully brought over many Tibetan lamas to the United States. Bringing the Dalai Lama over, however, proved to be an undertaking of Herculean proportions made worse by obstacles of a political nature. In December 1959, President Eisenhower rejected the Tibetans’ request to meet with the Dalai Lama. Some people viewed this rejection as a sign that the United States saw the Dalai Lama as Persona Non Grata, or an unwelcome person.

Once he was given the task of bringing the Dalai Lama to the United States, McCleary began a relentless campaign of writing to various leaders of Congress to request their support. In 1977, McCleary became the Deputy Assistant to President Carter’s Administration. He succeeded in obtaining the help of Deputy Assistant Tom Beard to help him reverse the State Department’s policy on the Dalai Lama issue. Through their lobbying efforts, McCleary and Beard gained many staunch supporters who later became the Dalai Lama’s best friends when he finally arrived in America.

David Urubshurow, age 11, lights a butterlamp in the original altar room of the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America while Geshe Ngawang Wangyal reads and translates sutras, 1959. Courtesy of David Urubshurow.

McCleary and Beard managed to bring the issue of the Dalai Lama’s visit to the highest level of the government. They presented it as an extension of President Carter’s commitment to human rights and a hallmark of his foreign policy. The issue soon became the agenda for the National Security Council where McCleary and Beard, accompanied by Hopkins and Tenzin Tethong from the Office of Tibet in New York City, made a compelling argument in favour of the visit.

Another beautiful picture of the Dalai Lama and Geshe Wangyal taken in August 1981

In September 1979, His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in the United States for the first time to commence a seven-week nationwide teaching tour. His first lecture took place at the LBMA in New Jersey, and his first private audience was given to Joel and April McCleary. The Dalai Lama’s maiden visit to the United States marked the beginning of the world’s and America’s love affair with him. The Dalai Lama would visit LBMA a total of eight times.

In 1981, after the Dalai Lama concluded his second teaching visit to LBMA, Geshe Wangyal gathered all his closest friends and disciples at the LBMA’s schoolhouse library to bid farewell to His Holiness. When the Dalai Lama arrived, Geshe Wangyal burst into tears as His Holiness hugged him and playfully tugged at his long goatee. Finally, His Holiness also started to weep. That was the last meeting between the Dalai Lama and Geshe Wangyal.

Later Life

A picture of the older Geshe Wangyal

Four months before his death, Geshe Wangyal offered the building in New Brunswick where he housed the Tibetan monks to the Dalai Lama’s charitable organisation, The Tibet Fund. He then arranged for the monks in New Brunswick to be moved to the Washington centre.

He also appointed his long-time students, Joshua and his wife, Diana Cutler, as his administrative successors. He gave them the assignment of building a temple on the TBLC grounds in memory of Alice Scudder Rayburn, Geshe Wangyal’s student and sponsor, who had passed away six months earlier. It was his wish that this temple would become the residence of the Dalai Lama whenever he visited.

On January 30, 1983 Geshe Wangyal passed away peacefully.

Legacy

In the summer of 1991, David Urubshurow, one of Geshe Wangyal’s longtime students, had the privilege of accompanying His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his visit to Kalmykia in southeastern Russia where he received a warm welcome. A person asked him, “Your Holiness, why are you here?” His Holiness immediately replied,

“I am here because of my friend Geshe Wangyal.”

Addendum: H.E. Tsem Rinpoche & Geshe Ngawang Wangyal

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/TsemRinpocheOnGesheNgawangWangyal.mp4

Transcript
When I was adopted over, back in 1972, to the United States, I was six going on seven years old. I was given over to a Mongolian family, which is also part of my heritage, and the particular group of Mongolians that I was given over to were called Kalmyks or Kalmyk Mongolians. They were situated in the tri-state area in the eastern part of the United States, which is namely Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey. So, in this tri-state area, the Kalmyk Mongolians were living and made it their home, because it was very difficult for them to live in their homeland and practise their religion, with the onslaught of the Stalinist regime and the communist regime in Russia at that time.

Tsem Rinpoche as a young boy and the Kalmyk family he was adopted into

So the Kalmyks, who were traditionally Buddhists, immigrated to Europe and from Europe immigrated to the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. The Kalmyks are very strong in their practice and faith of Buddhism, as they have been for many centuries. Therefore, in New Jersey itself, they had established four very beautiful Buddhist temples, and they also have it in Philadelphia.

When I was adopted over to the United States, I went to Howell, New Jersey. And Howell, New Jersey had a large community of immigrant Mongolian people, Kalmyk people, Kalmyk Mongols, and they had settled there and built their temples. In Howell New Jersey, there were three Kalmyk Mongolian Buddhist Temples and then in North Jersey, in Washington, New Jersey, this was in the northern part of the state of New Jersey, there was a Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center that was opened and developed by the Mongolian Geshe, Geshe Wangyal.

Kalmyk Mongols preserved their ancient practice of Buddhism in America

So what happened was, all of the Mongolians would attend regular temple service, rituals, holidays, prayers. Whenever there was a Buddhist holiday, such as Tsongkhapa’s Day, then people would attend and engage in prayers, the monks would chant and do rituals, and the lay people would sit in the temple and recite mantras, while they turned the prayer wheel. That was one of my favourite times of going to the temple.

I visited all three temples in Howell, New Jersey, and whenever I had free time, I would particularly go to Nitsan Temple, and Rashi Gempil Ling Temple. Rashi Gempil Ling Temple is the seat of my first teacher, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. Later, he became the abbot and he was known as Kensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche. So Rashi Gempil Ling Temple, which is built by the Kalmyk Mongolian people in the community there, was built, sustained, maintained by the Mongolian Kalmyk community there. It’s a very beautiful temple. And I would go there for services, for prayers, for classes, and what not, and that was literally five minutes bike ride from my house. If I was to walk, it would be about ten to fifteen minutes, because it was very, very nearby, so I was very, very fortunate.

The Mongolian community in Washington, New Jersey, well, the Mongol Geshe in Washington, New Jersey, of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, Kalmyk Mongols of New York and Philadelphia, and New Jersey, all combined, and invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1979 to the United States. This was spearheaded by the great Mongolian master, Geshe Wangyal.

So, Geshe Wangyal made the arrangements, he made the request, and he made the preparations. And naturally, all of the Mongolian people who have been connected to the Dalai Lama for many centuries, all the various Dalai Lamas for many centuries, were very excited. I remember His Holiness came in 1979, he visited all three temples of Nitsan, Tashi Lhunpo and Rashi Gempil Ling Temple. He visited all the three temples in Howell, New Jersey, and he graciously also visited the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey.

What was very exciting was we all took a bus, the Mongolian people chartered a bus, many buses actually, many buses to Washington, New Jersey. I think it was about a two-hour ride, not too far, pleasant ride, to Washington, New Jersey, which has a large piece of land up at the base of the Appalachian Mountains, and it was very green, and forested.

Geshe Wangyal’s centre was at the base of beautiful Appalachian Mountains

Geshe Wangyal had a special house and residence built for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, that had his own temple, he had his own residence there, and while we were there, they were in the process of building a lake, and he had tents set up all over the land, and he had reception centres. He had a beautiful area to receive His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all the people there.

I can’t remember exactly how many people because back then in 1979 I was 14, so at least there would be at least 400-500 persons there, maybe even more. Because I know among the Kalmyks, Kalmyk Mongols, there were at least 300-400 persons. And so, we were very excited because Geshe Wangyal invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Washington centre, and under the auspices, the sponsorship and the spearheading of Geshe Wangyal. It was really exciting because when we arrived by bus there, we had a chance to meet Geshe Wangyal, and it was the first time that I had met this Kalmyk Mongolian master, and he gave me his blessings, and by that time he was already much older, I don’t know how old, but he was much older. I remember his distinctive white goatee, and of course he spoke fluent Mongolian, and Tibetan, and some English, and the whole place was set up so beautifully.

A depiction of Buddha Nageshvaraja, with white face and blue body

The main picture that was set up outside was the Buddha Nagaraja, who had a white head, and a blue body, and who is one of the Buddhas of the Thirty-five Confessional Buddhas Sutra. There were many offerings everywhere, beautiful tents, and a throne was set up outside, and it was absolutely a beautiful, cool day. I think it was around September, so it was already early fall. So, it was not cold, but it was cool, and it was very crisp, very clear, and very nice.

His Holiness had already been resting in his room, and the next thing we knew was Geshe Wangyal in the traditional manner, with incense, invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama out of his room, to the throne and dais where he was going to give the teachings, under a tent, outdoors. It was a very beautiful moment, and His Holiness came out, and he sat on the throne, and Geshe Wangyal made the traditional prostrations and offerings, and everybody sat down.

I remember, when His Holiness arrived, there was a very light, misty rain. Nobody got wet. It was just a very light mist appeared, and there were rainbows all over the place. Then there was a little white butterfly that kept hovering around His Holiness’ head, not landing on the Dalai Lama’s head, or not falling on the Dalai Lama’s head, but just hovering around it, for, you know, I think about fifteen, twenty minutes, and then flew away.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama proceeded to give us teachings on the “Eight Verses of Thought Transformation”, and he gave explanations on each of the eight verses, and on top of that, he gave an explanation on how to meditate on it, and he advised us to recite the “Eight Verses” every single day, which I started to do from that time onwards. He also gave us the oral transmission of Avalokiteshvara’s mantra, Chenrezig’s mantra – Om Mani Padme Hum.

It was very, very beautiful and if I remember the teachings were about two to three hours, and I cried throughout most of the teachings because I felt very happy to receive these teachings and they felt very familiar, and they felt very appropriate. I felt that the teachings were very appropriate and very familiar, and comfortable, for lack of a better description of how I felt. Afterwards, we all lined up and we had the fortune to go up personally and offer a khata, a white silk traditional greeting scarf to His Holiness, and receive his blessings, and he gave each of us a hand blessing, which is he places his hand on our head, and also a red string that has been tied in a knot in the centre, which contains blessed mantras, blown on by His Holiness.

Four-armed Chenrezig. Click to enlarge.

So, I was extremely excited, and I remember before this, I had taken two or three weeks to paint a poster of the Four-armed Avalokiteshvara. I painted the Avalokiteshvara, and I painstakingly put a lot of details and all that on it, and on the back, I composed a prayer. I composed a prayer to praise His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and his indivisibility with Avalokiteshvara, and I prayed that I will be close to him and not be separated from him in this life and future lives. So I had composed that prayer in my little childish writing, and then I wrote it at the back of the painting, and I had this all prepared.

So, when I went to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I’ve offered this painting up, and he graciously accepted it, and I flipped it to the back and he was reading it. I was holding people up in line, and people were kind of giving me that look that I was holding people up in line, so I said to His Holiness he can read it later, he doesn’t have to read it now because there is a lot of people waiting. He smiled, and so he accepted the painting, and that was my first meeting with His Holiness in New Jersey, besides meeting him in Howell, of course, briefly.

After that was done, we had our lunch there and there were so many Kalmyk people there, there were so many Kalmyk kids, all of my relatives were there, and it was just a very beautiful, wonderful day. We went to say thank you to Geshe Wangyal for all of this, and we took our bus, and went back to New Jersey, and that was that. You have to understand that for many years, I had, for many years, since I was nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old, wanted to study Buddhism very deeply, I wanted to become a Buddhist monk, I wanted to go to the mountains to meditate, and for years, I would be in my house in Howell, New Jersey, my family house, and I would often paint or draw, or use crayons to colour in different paintings, different drawings, different illustrations of mountains, and people meditating in mountains and people seeing Buddhas while they are meditating, having visions of Buddhas, having visions of their personal yidams or meditational deities.

So I’d be drawing this and I’d be visualising this, and fantasising about this for many, many years, even as a child. I felt very familiar with meditating in the mountains, I felt very familiar with monks, and I felt that I should be wearing robes. I felt that robes were the appropriate clothes for me, and also, that I should be among monks. I felt very much like an outsider to be with lay people, and I felt very comfortable to be with monks. So I would often go to the nearby temples, the Kalmyk temples, to be with monks, talk with the monks, and visit them as much as possible, as much as my mother would allow me. She was very restrictive on that.

After I saw the Washington temple, it made a very deep impact on me, and I thought, what a beautiful place to live, what a beautiful place to stay, because it’s in the Appalachian Mountain base, it’s filled with trees and it’s green, and how lovely it would be if I can go there, and live there, become ordained as a monk and study there. And I thought about that.

A young Tsem Rinpoche with his adopted mother

So, what happened was I’ve had many, many problems with my parents, due to a lot of issues my mother had with my father, which I will not get into at this time. She was a very disturbed, and unhappy, and very angry woman, although she was a very kind woman. She was a good person, but because of her tumultuous relationship with her husband, my stepfather, it often disturbed her mental equilibrium. It often disturbed her mind, and she was not at peace. I would be the brunt of her unhappiness, where I would receive a lot of, I would say, scolding and physical abuse, beatings and all that for many, many years. I took it because I did love her. But my yearning was to go to the temple, was to study at the temple, and she was 100 percent against that.

Although being a very staunch and strong Buddhist herself, I was her only son, she adopted me to be her son. It is not Kalmyk tradition to allow your only son to be a Sangha. If you had three, four, or five sons, you can perhaps spare one son, for lack of a better word, to the monasteries, as it was Mongolian tradition, and also Tibetan tradition. In any case, as being the only son, I wasn’t allowed to become a monk, or study Buddhism. I would have to stay in a secular way of life, which I totally rejected.

My conflict with my mom also became stronger because of that. As a result, I ran away from home many times, where I literally packed my stuff when she wasn’t around, and I would get on the bus and go to various parts of the United States. One of my first, one of my earlier attempts of running away was when I was fourteen. I mean I had run away earlier than that, but that was an earlier attempt of running away, because I had run away at eleven, I had run away at twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, I run away many times because I really wanted to go study Buddhism.

When I was around fourteen, fifteen, around that time I remember, that I had a fall out with my mom. She wouldn’t allow me to go to the temple to receive teachings from my teacher anymore, the temple was Rashi Gempil Ling, so I decided to leave. When she wasn’t around, I packed my bags and I had left home. When I’d left, it was in winter, and it was snowing, and it was a lot of snow in New Jersey, the snow is very, big amounts, you know, it could be two or three foot of snow back then.

What I had done was, I had packed my bags and I wanted to go to Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, and that’s what I did. I packed my bags and I went to Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, and I got on the bus, and then I somehow arrived in Washington, New Jersey. When I arrived in Washington, New Jersey, this was like half a year, one year later, when I had run away, I forgot the name of the place where Geshe Wangyal was, and I forgot the name of the centre and all that.

Tibetan Buddhist Learning Centre which is also known as Labsum Shedrup Ling

I went to the public library in Washington, New Jersey, and it was open. There was a very lovely librarian there. I had not told her I had run away or anything, I just said that I am looking for a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Washington, New Jersey, and she had heard of it. So, she went on to do some search. You know, back then they had microfiche, and they had these microfiche machines. She went on a search, and she found some newspaper articles, and from that she found the location of Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, and the telephone number and all of that, and she gave it to me. I was ever so grateful.

I went to a phone booth, and I called up the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in my youthful innocence, and I requested to talk to Geshe Wangyal. The lady on the phone was very kind, she said to me Geshe Wangyal is not here at this time because it is winter, and that he had gone to Florida, where he usually goes every winter, because it’s drier and hotter, and it was easier for his arthritis. So needless to say, I was very disappointed, but I still spoke to her, she asked me what did I want, and I said I wanted Geshe Wangyal’s permission to join the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, and become a monk, and study and stay there. So, the lady on the phone said to me she couldn’t make that decision for me, and that I should call back in a short while, that she would call Geshe-la and seek his advice.

So I think I waited for about an hour, and I called back and the lady said that she had contacted Geshe Wangyal la in Florida. And he had said that he is very happy to see my energy and my strength of will to practice Buddhism, but in America I would need my parents’ permission, since I was a minor, to stay at his centre. Without my parents’ permission it would be illegal for him to allow me to stay at his centre, although he was very happy to hear that I wanted to study Buddhism.

He had said to me to promise him to go back home and seek my parents’ permission and not stay in Washington, but to be safe at home and then study at a later time and that he would lend me $50 dollars to do so. The $50 dollars were for me to stay in a hotel and the next day to take a bus trip back to Howell, New Jersey, which was in the south.

Because such a great master had said this to me through his assistant, this lady – I don’t remember this lady’s name, I reluctantly agreed. So this lady drove down to the centre of Washington Town, because they are in the outskirts, in the mountains. She talked to me and she listened to me. I told her how much I wanted to study Buddhism, how much I wanted to become a monk, and how disappointed I am that I cannot join the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Centre.

She said to me that Geshe la is sympathetic to my plight, very sympathetic to what I wish to do but that America has strict laws and this would not be allowed. She said to me that she was instructed to “pass $50 to you. Are you going to take this and stay in a hotel and rest? And then take a bus back tomorrow and be safe? Do you promise to do this? Geshe la wants you to promise.” So, I said to her that “I promise.”

She gave me $50 dollars and I went to a hotel, a cheap hotel, at that time to stay. I think it was 20-30 dollars. I thought that although I had promised this master, although he is not my teacher, that I would have to do that. The next day I took a bus back to Howell, New Jersey. I went back home and well, I was in big trouble. There was scolding and beating and screaming and shouting. The usual which I have endured for many years. I told my mother what I did and she was not pleased, needless to say.

So that was my first encounter and second encounter, or association with Geshe la. It was many, many years later that His Holiness the Dalai Lama again visited Geshe Wangyal’s centre, back in 1987. So, it was eight years later that he visited the Tibetan Learning Centre again in Washington, New Jersey. I went up there and this time I was 21-22 years old. I had a short blessing from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and at that time I requested him that I wish to become a monk and if he can ordain me. This has been captured on video, which I will include here.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama accepted and he was very happy. He was very pleased and he said that if I come to India, it would be no problem, he would ordain me into the Buddhist monkhood. I accepted and I was very, very excited. In Geshe Wangyal’s Tibetan Buddhist Learning Centre, in Washington, New Jersey is where I met the Dalai Lama again in 1987 and where I requested to become ordained. So it was right at that spot in Tibetan Buddhist Learning Centre. It was in Geshe Wangyal’s centre that I requested to become a monk and later I flew to India in 1987 to become a Buddhist monk.

When I arrived in India, I went to Dharamsala and I had audience with His Holiness and I was official ordained. So that was my little bit of association and connection or interaction with the great Buddhist master Geshe Wangyal. I thought I would share that here on this blogpost, it would be somewhat appropriate. Thank you very much.

Tsem Rinpoche

 

VIDEO: Tsem Rinpoche requesting H.H. Dalai Lama for ordination in 1987

Postscript
Tsem Rinpoche requested His Holiness the Dalai Lama for ordination in 1987 at Geshe Ngawang Wangyal’s centre in Washington, New Jersey. During another earlier visit to the centre, before Geshe Wangyal passed away in 1983, Tsem Rinpoche found Geshe Wangyal’s assistant who had given him $50 at the instructions of Geshe Wangyal when he tried to run away to the centre previously. Tsem Rinpoche had not forgotten that the money was borrowed, so explained to the assistant who he was and that he was returning the $50.

She was happy to see that he was well and insisted that he give the money back to Geshe Wangyal himself. She led him over to Geshe Wangyal, who by that time was in a wheelchair and hard of hearing. She asked Geshe Wangyal if he remembered that a young boy had wanted to join his centre and that he had instructed her to give him $50 so that he could stay in a hotel before returning back to his parents. Geshe Wangyal replied that he did indeed remember. So, the assistant introduced Tsem Rinpoche as that boy and Tsem Rinpoche returned the money to Geshe Wangyal.

Geshe Wangyal was very pleased that Tsem Rinpoche was well. He accepted the money and was happy that Tsem Rinpoche had used the money to get back to his parents successfully.

Sources:

• Conboy, Kenneth and Morrison, James. The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet. The University Press Kansas, 2000.
• Wangyal, Geshe Ngawang. The Door of Liberation: Essential Teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. Wisdom Publications, 1995.
• http://www.tricycle.com/feature/russia-love
• https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/from-russia-with-love.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngawang_Wangyal
• http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Geshe_Ngawang_Wangyal
• https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Geshe_Ngawang_Wangyal
• http://www.labsum.org/welcome.html
• http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/collections/ethnology/asia/tibet/charles-bell/related-person-51105-1.aspx

For more interesting information:

• Incredible Geshe Wangyal
• Agvan Dorjiev: The Diplomat Monk
• The Truth About Who Saved the 14th Dalai Lama
• 10,000 Mongolians Receive Dorje Shugden
• Zaya Pandita Luvsanperenlei (1642 – 1708)
• Kalmyk People’s Origin – VERY INTERESTING
• Danzan Ravjaa: The Controversial Mongolian Monk
• Mongolian Astrology and Divination
• Thich Nhat Hanh: Icon of Peace and Courage
• Buddhism in the Mongol Empire
• The Fifth Dalai Lama and his Reunification of Tibet
• Tsem Rinpoche’s Torghut Ancestry
• My recollection of H.E. Guru Deva Rinpoche
• The Ethnics Groups of China
• Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan
• Tsem Rinpoche’s heritage in China
• Auspicious Mongolian Omen
• Namkar Barzin

Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:

If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team